MaxQuest

Duh, you have got what you asked for in the starting post Sure. So analysis of common shortcomings in rpg games, that are potentially related to Deadfire, and looking for the ways to alleviate them?

They did a good job. Still, I was asking myself when giving fencing lessons, taking a contract or investigating murders in Novigrad: what am I doing?, I need to find Ciri first. It also reminds me of Oblivion: you have to find Brother Martin, he can be in danger! Well... the grandmaster of fighter, mage and thief guilds is finnaly ready to look up for him) I did it after the main story) Absolutely. That should become a standard in quest-giving.

I generally like having "freedom" in a game, as in "free to choose the order of doing things". But yes, too much freedom can be bad, if it's implemented without taking player's inner state in account. The minor problem I had in Oblivion, Skyrim and Witcher 3 is the sense of urgency. You have to find Ciri asap, but hey, here's a game of gwent! And doing sidequests makes you feel sorry. It be great if games with free world had 3 stages: - early game: main quest #1; feeling of urgency; getting hooked; but somewhat short (2-4 hours). - mid game: free world; no urgency; sidequest; do what you want. - late game: main quest #2; pursuing the main antagonist; final, hard and multi-staged battle. Ending slides or scene. If it's completely irrelevant - it should not be in the game, imho. Or at least there should be a chance to catch a rumor, pointer to some "treasure/bounty" or an interesting piece of lore. I.e. it needs to have a real purpose. 1. Opaque character creation. - When first time creating a character, I don't know do I want more of stat1 or of stat2, as I don't know the nature of encounters I have to face - Nor do I know if the game is another "bump everything into one stat" or "go with a balanced approach" - Do I want a skill that inflicts "a short term" "burn" or a "short term" "bleed"? How more vague can it get? Especially if there are no detailed tooltips, nor a link to status effects. - Oh, there are tooltips! Ok, what do I want?: a melee attack that hits everyone in arc in front of me for 44 damage, or a fireball that hits for 15? Wait, they have same cooldown? Hmm, this game seems to favor melee. What about heals? There is a restoration spell that heals for 11. Well, this game seems all about phys damage. - Going with a melee phys damager. Knight. Oh, the tooltips on character creation lied. - Ok, screw it. For the first run, I will go not for the seeming optimal class/role/spread; but with an archetype in mind! I want a very sturdy battlemage that is able to drain the life essense of his foes. No such archetype? Disappointment. Ok, I'll pick another. The problem is that if I am going for archetype the stats should be somewhat realistic, and often they aren't. 2. Discrepancy in stats. Paladins with weapons that have higher intellect that themselves. Rogues with 30 str and 9000 agi. 3. Broken mechanics. In Skyrim it's too easy to build an OP character. While another extremity being: it doesn't even really matter what weapon do you pick (AC4) 4. Lying tooltips. Missing tooltips. Vague tooltips. 5. Final Boss being too weak. It's like the whole game was big and long preparation for this calamitous encounter... and then you face a xaurip. 6. Limited combat archetypes. Lack of variety. 7. Lack of balance. +/- 20% in general impact is ok. But when you don't want to take a class at all, is not good. 8. Lack of even higher difficulty that gets unlocked after first playthrough. 9. Lack of conversation choices. The game asks you: A, B or C. And none of them is what you or your character would answer. You are getting blocked. 10. Lack of NPC reactivity. Hey, that's a high level dragonborn! Let's rob him. 11. The sense of artificial urgency in a free world. And thus feeling sorry for doing sidequests. 12. Overly big swords. Childish graphic style. /rant off The most important? Not sure. Just important? In RPGs sure it is. The story doesn't have to be super detailed through. But it has to get me engaged, and never ever induce the sense of disbelief. Additionally I really need to like at least some of main characters, in order to feel attached and really invested.

I second the limaxophobiacq's suggestion. - Having an MC priest will make it easy vs vessels. Plus priest has great synergy with barb and party disables. I would recommend going for a moon godlike equiped with Raiment of Wael's Eyes + Kana's Arquebus (for early game) / Gyrd (for mid game) / and Abydon's Hammer (in late game) (because of the +4 mig and of the superb per-encounter aoe stun). Also, up the CON to 8 or 9, since this party doesn't have much single-target per-encounter cc. - Kana will help on the total damage department. Will require investment in survival and perhaps Wound Binding. Forgotten Tear/Whispers of Yenwood + Little Saviour. Shame or Glory can work as well, if Sagani will be hitting his target. Btw, don't forget to give him Hermit's Hat once he is past lvl 9. - And Hiravias has both decent aoe cc's and great single target damage. - Sagani ain't stellar by herself, but together with Ituumak they have enough impact (combined damage, offtanking and cc via stormcaller procs) to get a spot in the party. - I don't really like Aloth's stats. He's a mediocre blaster, nor is sturdy enough for frontline. But imho MC Priest + Aloth is better than MC Wizard + Durance anyway. In the end even if Aloth could only cast Slicken, Shadowflame and Call to Slumber he would still be useful as hell. - As for barb, I haven't tried The Golden Dragon build. But I liked a dw-bittercut 18/10/12/14/18/6 boreal dwarf with Shod-in-Faith boots in my last run, so would recommend a compromise stat spread 18/9/8/19/18/6 with Purgatory + Dragon Maw. So overall formation: frontline: Kana, Barb, Hiravias midline : ____, Priest, Itumaak backline : Aloth,Sagani (with Aloth being rdy to switch to 1h+shield and use Arcane Veil if needed)

For situations when you want an extra bonus in an upcoming fight... xxx: you hear me dragon? I have ****** dealt-with worse!

Imo, the example with cars is not really fitting here. On the other hand I understand what asnjas means, as for instance I remember having lots of fun (maybe even most of fun) in Morrowind and NWN1, but their graphics is too dated for me to re-play them. ... still trying to man up and try BG2 which I've recently bought; meanwhile looking for ways to break GalCiv3 instead...

Yes you can have multiple beams active at the same time. But yes, they should be different. Yes. Surprise: beam's duration is not affected by INT. It could be a bug, but it's so since v 2.0 at very least. I remember joking about 3 INT wizard focused on beams and missile spells. So for the stats spread you gonna first decide what you want: - v1. cast cc spells and deal damage with beams: ranged wood elf 16/7/15/18/19/3 - v2. just use beams and missiles as often as possible; in this case you can dump INT. But it would make sense to make this wizard an offtank, because it's great when a character can fill two non-concurrent roles at the same time: 17/12/14/20/3/12 melee orlan with 1h+shield. Depending on how high is your swing/crit rate gonna be, I guess Barricade could fit nicely here.

Wouldn't be surprised if the announcement will come along with Definitive Edition in the middle of November.

If it's still a rank 7 spell in Deadfire, it should become accessible on character lvl 19 for a x/priest multiclass. Can't wait either.

Or... you know, sacrifice them? Also, on seemingly unrelated noted: can we give our crew members nicknames? I'd like to have a cook named "Machine"./jk

If talking specifically about melee/magic hybrids that are able to deal decent damage with weapons: - A Devout/Priest might indeed work nicely. Having somewhat decent melee auto-attack dps, augmented by deity specific +acc talents and Minor Avatar. Plus ability to cast Beacons with Cleansing Flames; although we don't know yet how will lower power level will impact their damage. Other option could be: taking Devotions for the Faithful. Also Triumph of the Crusaders will become much more useful in Deadfire, since there is no health limit. - A Barbarian/Skald. Hit a lot, crit a lot, invoke a lot. At least that's the idea. - A Barbarian/Wizard. Get Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, and later the Citzal's Lance. Wreck havok. - Ascendant/Shifter - build focus when shaped, or with Firebrand. - Shattered Pillar/Soul Blade, Devout/Soul Blade. Kinda self explanatory.

Glad to hear that

"Children look! I've created violet beer!"

I see the following possible combinations for a tank paladin: - the already mentioned multi-class with Unbroken, as fighter has lots of defensive stuff - multi-class with wizard (can't say which subclass yet), but the point is to get access to Arcane Veil (instant and per-encounter) as well as: Infuse Vitality, Mirrored Image and a plethora of Llengrath defensive spells. - multi-class with Lifegiver: since in Deadfire there is gonna be no health limit, keeping hp at max via plain healing could be a viable strategy - multi-class with barbarian: Savage Defiance + even higher fortitude from Frenzy's +MIG/CON can prove to be quite handy. And if there are many enemy spell-casters, one could multi-class with Mage Slayer. - multi-class with priest: because of Minor Avatar; and because paladins usually opt for high MIG/INT, and this will quite power-up their Shinning Beacons. - multi-class with Stalker: for the bonus to defenses - multi-class with Troubadour: for the Dragon Trashed + Sacred Immolation combo. This will be squishier than other options, but is expected to deliver excellent amounts of damage. - just a single class non-Bleak Walker paladin, if the high-level abilities/talents will trump everything that comes from multi-classing.

From Confusion description: As I understood if a confused enemy is in 'phase 2' he is considered your ally. Chanter is one of the least supervision required classes. Partially because of the usual low dex coupled with offtank role. And partially because Dragon Trashed does all the work for you. You have enough of basic cc, e.g. Aloth and Druid, each being able to cast 1-2 AoEs per encounter. What your party lacks is per-encounter damage. And Dragon Trashed should fix this. His level won't scale-up. You can somewhat alleviate this via sending him on stronghold adventures. But I haven't compared the xp numbers. P.S. If you want a quicker lvl 9, just do the first 3 bounties + Defiance Bay quests and hearing.

Splendid Gonna be OP Didn't have such an issue. Could it be related to this? @DragoDarkstorm, I haven't encountered such a warning. From what I understood after a quick googlefoo, PrivateImplementationDetails could be potentially inserted on compilation, presumably by IE Patchwork. So my guess is that it tries to patch the already patched Assembly dll. So let's try to do a clean mod install: - go to PillarsOfEternity_Data/Managed/ folder - make sure again that there is no Assembly-CSharp.dll.pw.modified file - overwrite back the original Assembly-CSharp.dll, if you have it - run the PatchworkLauncher.exe again - go to active mods, and make sure that there is only UPMod in the list (in order to narrow the problem), and that it is checked. - Test Run -> check the log If the problem persists, move settings.pw.xml from IEMod folder, and repeat the steps. If everything is fine and you also want IEMod, repeat the steps, with UPMod and IEMod both enabled.

Yeap, Alpine Dragon's melee attacks target fortitude. Plus he's hitting the hardest. With Deathblows he can crit for 200+. Taking a 250+ graze from Finishing Blow hurts as well. But seems I was wrong too, as I thought that Adra and Bog Dragons target fort as well. Just tested: P.S. Regarding tanking a dragon: it's not really tanking, as in taking all the blows and healing up; it's rather sending someone beefy whom you can use to control dragon's facing angle, while you try to prone/stun/paralyze/petrify it, because if there is just 1s gap between cc, it will use the breath.

No one is going to laugh at it) Personally, wild orlan and moon godlike are my favorite race choices for a tank paladin. Depends... Base duration is 10s. At 7 INT it gonna be 8.5s. Or 17s total (since there are 2 FoD charges). If you party is dps heavy, that's the average duration of an encounter in mid-late game. I have a feeling that there are more opportunities for benevolent and honest. Last time I played, I did it with visible disposition conversation choices. I have maxed benevolent and honest first. Followed by diplomatic, clever and rational. The longest it took me to rise stoic. As for passionate, cruel and deceptive I was never really into them, so can't really comment here. It will work yes. But unless you specifically want high deflection for some RP reason, I'd say that this build appears a bit sub-optimal to me from power-building perspective. Reasons: - deflection is not that useful as it can appear after going through the early game for the first time - dragon melee attacks target fortitude, while their breath targets reflex and these are ones of the most hard-hitting stuff in the game. Iirc Radiant Spore/Kraken tentacles target fortitude as well. - cleansing flames aside, few of enemy damaging abilities target will. - combining these together I'd say fortitude is a prioritary defence for a main tank paladin; plus it helps vs majority of stuns/prones/paralyzes. - high might does increase fortitude and increases the potence of paladin heals and sacred imolation damage - high intellect helps with aura range, sacred immolation range and buffs/exhortations durations. It also increases the amount healed by Lay on Hands - two of the most utility -order specific- talents are Inspiring Liberation and Bond of Duty. Because of the encounters design, these quite have a higher impact than Shielding Flames. Plus you save a talent, since MT doesn't really need Flames of Devotion. - there is a high chance that you will want to use Outworn Buckler/Little Savior shield. So putting points in PER, in order to get higher reflex/deflection is no longer the way to squeeze more defences. - assuming you have a 6-man party, how about something like?: 17 MIG, 17 CON, 5 DEX, 5 PER, 18 INT, 16 RES

It is, and enemies get longer recovery, but dunno in practice I didn't notice much benefit from it, because often they are already disabled. Plus the cooldowns betweed their abilities (e.g. 25s for dragon breath) remains the same.

That's a quite detailed party description I am short on time right at the moment, so will address this first: Inspiring Radiance provides: +10 acc bonus. Painful Interdiction provides (along other things): -20 will defense on affected targets Together they provide a +30 effective acc bonus to affect enemies with Shining Beacon (which targets will). Confused enemies that have switched their alliance will get affected by your AoE buffs if you cast any, and they are in radius. Yeap. Yeap. Disabling friendly fire - can make scrolls of paralysis much much more useful. Cipher Base Focus 3/4 of Maximum - that would be a sensible buff to any cipher you would take. As for party composition, look you can either go for a sturdy team, killing stuff over time: - frontline: Kana, Eder, NPC Druid - midline: Durance - backline: MC Priest, Aloth where: - Eder tanks - Kana deals damage via Dragon Trashed - Druid offtanks, deals ST damage in spiritshift form, and throws AoE stuns/prones (esp. Relentless Storm) once in awhile - Durance - is there for buffing and offtanking. During Minor Avatar can contribute to dealing damage, when finished casting buffs - MC Priest - is there to trump majority of boss fights, plus throw a Shinning Beacon once in awhile. For example if you rest on average after 8 easy-medium fights, you can use a Beacon in every second fight; and unload all remaining usages once you know that you will have to rest after given encounter anyway - Aloth - is there mostly for Shadowflame and Slicken which shall be mastered; interruptions (kalakoths minor blights + blast); Mass Confusion, Gaze of Adragan, Call to Slumber, Wall of Many Colors and Concehaut's Doom. He doesn't have a stellar PER, but on normal you won't really feel it. Other way could be: - frontline: Kana, NPC Paladin, Grieving Mother - midline: Aloth - backline: MC Priest, NPC Cipher Where: - NPC Paladin - is main tank (gold pact or darcozzi) (moon godlike or wild orlan), and used for Lay on Hands, Zealous Focus, and anti-charm/dominate/confuse utility - GM - is your main debilitator, with a 2H weapon: Tidefall/Firebrand in early-mid game, Blade of the Endless Paths in the late game. - NPC Cipher - a wood elf used for both damage and cc - the rest do same thing as before

^ The thing is that 95% of fights in PoE1 with a dps-heavy party last for less than 30 seconds (of normal, unpaused time). On the other hand, DAoM starts economizing time after just 2 shots. What do I mean is: - without DAoM my cipher (20 DEX, durganized Rain, swift action, durganized hide, penetrating shot), has attack duration of 34.6f and recovery of 41.1. - with DAoM: recovery becomes zero - time to use DAoM: either instant (5f) (if spellbind); 2.33s (70f) (if potion); or 1s (30f) (if potion, and you have UPMod) This means that DAOM is worth it if I'll make just 2 shots, even in the worst case.

v1.00.306 - includes points (bug-fixes) #1-#5, and v1.01.306 - includes points #1-#7 They are completely standalone (not cumulative), so just select the (only) one you want to use I will think how to make installation guide more intuitive. Thanks) Tbh I am not sure. If you can use IEMod, than you should be able to use UPMod as well. But if you can't run the patchwork executable... you are out of luck.

1. The approach to Concentration is: either take points from other stats into RES; or keep your character highly specialized but let other party-members help with priest being uninterrupted. For example I use 2 ciphers and a wizard for keeping enemies disabled. Priest is not getting interrupted if the enemy cannot attack. - If you rise Concentration via RES stat - it will become another build, as the whole point is to have max MIG/INT (because of the way DoTs do profit from both) plus decent DEX/PER. But you can take the Gyrd sceptre (it adds 3 RES), and take Belt of Chimes/Celebrant's Gloves. - If you have problems with firing spells-up, you could consider an offtank priest instead. You will have to give-up on dealing decent spell damage without Minor Avatar on, through. 2. Regarding talents: the only must-haves are Painful Interdiction and Inspiring Radiance. As they make much easier for your party cc to land, plus it adds +30 to effective accuracy of your Shinning Beacons. Scion of Flame, Wilder Hunter and Ghost Hunter are great if you have the UPMod installed. If not they are optional. I would still recommend taking Aggrandizing Radiance - as +2 to all stats per-encounter is nice. And the bonus 4th spell slot - because casting one more Beacon and dealing extra 240+ damage is nothing to sniff at. All other talents are completely situational and depend on your party composition. Specifically for your case, I'd recommend: - Inspiring Radiance - Interdiction - Painful Interdiction - Aggrandizing Radiance - Deep Pockets - Generally you'd want to have the following quick items: DAoM, Potion of Major Stamina, Potion of Major Recovery, Flask of War Paint, Scrolls of Paralysis and the one of 3: Scrolls of Confusion (op, but avoid buffing enemies), Infuse Vitality (good early on), Bullwark vs Elements (if there are shades) - Scion of Flame - Prey on the Weak if you will use the Gyrd sceptre (what's your deity btw?) / Apprentice's Sneak Attack otherwise - Envenomed Strike / Wound Binding As for weapon focus: - it's not worth it for damage dealing, as your main contribution comes via spells - taking it, or priest specific +10 acc can be worth it with soulbound weapons, partially for Gyrd (because of domination proc) and partially for Abydon's Hammer - if you are going to use it to kill eyeless on crit. Regarding Interruption Blows: - it's not worth it, because DoT ticks do not interrupt.

Regarding DAoM: I just crafted too many of those, so I often was popping them at the start of the fight and having the effect immediately. Regarding Rain vs TwinSting: Rain is definitely better. The main usage of TwinSting, is it's one per-rest DAoM, which you can instantly pop, make two shots, and switch to Rain.

Agreed. But don't they still scale with power level? Which ranges from 1 to 9, and at character lvl 1 is... 1?